A plurality of storage racks for automotive and vehicular pneumatic tires are available which store the tires in their upright position. While the upright arrangement of tires provides random access to the plurality of tires stored thereon, the amount of space required to store tires in this manner is not economical for packing and shipping purposes. Accordingly, racks used for displaying articles or tires are not efficient for packing tires within a rectangular container, such as a trailer, for shipment and distributing manufactured tires to retailers.
In addition, racks are known which store tires while stacked in their horizontal position or in the so-called stovepiped formation. Some of these racks may have a load supporting platform which is adjustable depending upon the number of tires to be stacked thereon. Like other known tire display racks, racks for storing tires horizontally can be stacked on top of one another to increase the number of tires stored on a floor area. However, this upward extension of stored tires is limited by the height of the room or container and the size of the stackable rack.
Known storage racks for horizontally or vertically stored tires may include a cable or other means to secure tires stacked on a rack's platform. However, conventional securing means are threaded through upright tires or tied across horizontal tires and, at most, only restrain the tires from moving during shipment. As a result, conventional securing means are not constructed to maintain tires under compression for compact storage and thus, do not enable more tires to be shipped per container volume.
The typical form employed for shipping such tires is a rick, created by stacking alternate rows of tires within a shipping container; each row of tires is placed at a substantially acute angle; successive rows are placed at alternating angles, creating an interleaved and interlocking effect. The number of resultant stacked tires is greater than that achieved by upright or horizontal stacking and would appear as a very large herringbone pattern from the side of the shipping container.
In addition to increasing the amount of tires per container volume, the interlocking effect of the herringbone rick construction provides generally high friction between adjacent tires which tends to restrain the tires from shifting, even though the overall density of a tire shipment is low in relation to the enclosed air space.
U.S. Pat. No. 4, 777,781 to Doster et al. describes an apparatus for creating high density tire ricks in order to increase the number of tires shipped per container. However with Doster's apparatus, the tires must be stacked manually within a trailer or other shipping container and then, employing a specially constructed warehouse tug vertically compressed to a volume approximately one-half of that ordinarily required. While the warehouse tug continues to hold the previously stacked tires down with a vertical wedge, workers stack additional tires above the wedge platform. After tires have been manually stacked to the roof of the container, the compressing wedge is removed and the resultant stacks can be compressed again. While Doster's apparatus increases the volumetric efficiency of a shipping container, several disadvantages are associated therewith.
In particular, the tires must be handled a number of times. First by the workers who are forced to work within the confines of trailer or other shipping container and then by the single-job dedicated warehouse tug. This alternation continues until tires can no longer be manually stacked or compressed to fit additional tires thereon. This dual process continues to form rows of stacked tire ricks until the container is filled.
Consequently, not only is Doster's specially constructed apparatus an expensive investment, it is a limited investment as it's sole use is for compressing articles stacked in their shipping container. Further, workers performing the manual stacking become extremely hot and sweaty laboring within such shipping containers. Moreover, for an efficient operation, only half of the stacked tires would be compressed. Accordingly, the increased density is limited to number of tires actually compressed since compression is limited to 50% in vertical height to avoid seriously deforming or damaging the tires.
Therefore, it can be seen that there is a need for a rack for stacking and maintaining stacked articles under compression for compact storage which allows workers to load the articles or tires outside or within a large warehouse and compresses, in one motion, all of the stacked articles or tires for efficient high density packing of articles for shipment.